Five Irish citizens featured on Forbes’ wealthiest list

Five Irish citizens feature in the “Forbes” list of the world's wealthiest people. The richest man is the world, however, is Mexico's Carlos Slim, who is worth $74 billion.

The richest Irish citizen on the list is Pallonji Mistry, 81, who has a fortune of $8.8 billion. He is ranked 103rd on the overall list. Mistry, although based in Mumbai, India has an Irish passport due to the Irish citizenship of his wife and sons.

Telecommunication tycoon Denis O'Brien from Dublin is next on the list with $4.2 billion. He is ranked 254th overall. His company Digicel operates companies in dozens of Caribbean and Pacific islands. These include Communicorp, which owns 42 radio stations worldwide.O’Brien recently made huge contributions to Haiti and is very active in Irish charities.

Next is John Dorrance III. He is the U.S.-born heir of Campbell Soup and has a fortune of $2.4 billion. In the mid-1990s he sold off much of his 10.5 percent share in Campbell soup for $1.5 billion. Before the sale he renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Ireland.

Founder of Glen Electric Martin Naughton is the fourth Irishman on the list. Naughton, a native of County Louth acquired Dimplex and became the sole owner of Glen Dimplex 2003. He has an estimated wealth of $1.9 billion.

The last Irishman on the list is Dermot Desmond with a net wealth of $1.6 billion. Desmond , from Dublin, founded NCB Stockbrokers in 1981 and sold it in 1994. He put the proceeds into private equity firm, International Investment & Underwriting.

He was also one of the founders of the Irish Financial Services Center (IFSC) in Dublin. In 2006 he sold London City Airport. He still owns the betting exchange Betdaq and online educations outfit intuition and mapping software eSpatial. He also has stakes in Barbados' Sandy Lane Hotel and Glasgow Celtic football club.

In 2010 Irish insurance magnate Sean Quinn had been featured on the list with an estimated worth of $2.3 billion. This year he did not feature. Sir Anthony O'Reilly was also pushed out in 2009.